Family

Sea Turtle Festival — Stavros, Akrotiri

A free evening on the beach for the loggerheads that nest there: kids' games and face painting, then telescopes after dark.

Pachia Ammos is the most important nesting beach for Caretta caretta loggerhead turtles anywhere on the Akrotiri peninsula, and once a year the people who look after it throw the place open. From six there is an open-air exhibition of paintings by primary school children who came out here to learn about the dunes, wooden information signs to build and plant, a floor game on the sand and face painting, with ARCHELON on hand to explain the turtles' life cycle and why the dunes matter. At eight the telescopes come out and the Friends of Astronomy of Crete take over, with a talk on how the ancient Greek philosophers made sense of the sky, then planets, star clusters and nebulae if the weather holds. There is a bazaar of books and bits and pieces running alongside it. Entry is free and all of it happens on the sand, so bring something to sit on and something warm for the second half.